Oregon Hikers

What a day!

So this one ended up being higher up on the difficulty level than anticipated. Pull up google earth and it's "just right up from the TT"... yeah... So pick your route carefully and I can say I lucked out as it was my first time attempting, but there was some double backing on the TT in order to locate the best possible candidates.

First view, nice to see some Fresh snow on the upper slopes:
Inspiration point views:
Huckleberries slowed the progress immensely!!!

@ Elk Cove, hmm... I think it can look good at both AM light and PM light... missed the PM light by about 15 mins:
@ Mooney Tarn... just astonishingly clear skies, little to no wind, couldn't ask for better conditions!
Photography here https://chrismarkes.smugmug.com/

Mooney remains... upon closer examination, just made me think how fragile both that plane and life really is. I wasn't able to find the news articles on this plane crash, but if anyone has any applicable links, please post.
Forgot to mention above: Met a sizeable group of LIVELY individuals, some of which used to post here, shared stories and route strategies on getting back down safely. Hopefully some post here and say hi! They were nice enough to take photos of me from different sides of the lake. Often we seek solitude, but I Truly enjoyed their company!

For those looking to make the trip, I'd say plan on GPS, make sure to have a map on your phone ready to go, there's many points where you can end up having to abort your climb and start over; I just happen to have lucked out on this one.

Nice work! Yep that’s a beautiful spot. It can be quite tricky finding the best way up as the brush below the timberline can be quite a pain to get through.

Mike (aka GoalTech)

The one time I was up there, I went up the west moraine of Eliot Glacier and came at the tarn from above. The bushwhack down to the Timberline Trail was annoying, but at least we only had to do it once!

adamschneider wrote: ↑

September 22nd, 2019, 3:13 pm

The one time I was up there, I went up the west moraine of Eliot Glacier and came at the tarn from above. The bushwhack down to the Timberline Trail was annoying, but at least we only had to do it once!

Yep, yep. My first time to Mooney, I was amazed at how easy it was to find. From above, it's completely intuitive, you can't miss it. Between Mooney and Timberline Trail, some routes are slightly better than others, but I've never had to backtrack. Maybe I've been lucky.

Chip Down wrote: ↑

September 22nd, 2019, 6:45 pm

adamschneider wrote: ↑

September 22nd, 2019, 3:13 pm

The one time I was up there, I went up the west moraine of Eliot Glacier and came at the tarn from above. The bushwhack down to the Timberline Trail was annoying, but at least we only had to do it once!

Yep, yep. My first time to Mooney, I was amazed at how easy it was to find. From above, it's completely intuitive, you can't miss it. Between Mooney and Timberline Trail, some routes are slightly better than others, but I've never had to backtrack. Maybe I've been lucky.

Yeah I was thinking it would have been kind of a fun trip to do a loop from TT up to that Elliot overlook (shall we call it lower snowdome?), then drop to Mooney, and then go slightly downhill, then use those trees as a guide crossing over and back east towards what we could called upper stranahan? The group I'd met up there had gone that way and said it wasn't bad at all. I didn't really enjoy the route going straight up from the TT as you really end up utilizing two gullies, one is fine on top of vegetation but doesn't allow you to actually gain the ridge until about half way up when you're then forced east over the ridge because of a shale pile (not my fave thing to deal with) that ends up on an ever steeper slope and puts you too far to the west; So I crossed over about just over half way up then used the next gully over which wasn't bad as you have more large rocks to climb up from there. Some of the group have heard your name btw!! I mentioned you but I forgot their names already. Was hoping they'd post up on here.

Overall it looks like a pretty do-able loop, and getting back down was much much easier simply using the canyon to the east BEFORE the langile crags canyon.

Anyone still have any news articles about the plane crash itself? Some work people inquired, was hoping to share more information on it if there's any kind of back story re weather/navigation/etc...

By far the most information you will find online about the crash is from this site. I believe this is the very first report:

viewtopic.php?t=5677

There are numerous other trip reports, including one from me a number of years ago. I agree the best way is to cross the Eliot Glacier and loop up above Langille Crags before heading down to the tarn. From there, you will get down to the TT, but the difficulty and inconvenience is various depending on your trajectory.

Our first trip was also back in 2010, we went up the wrong ridge and had to climb higher up the mountain until we could traverse across. Ended up being a very long day



A couple of other routes we have taken:

Nice pictures Chris! It was nice to meet you up at the tarn last Saturday. I am pretty sure you were more surprised than we were when you arrived. It was not my first trip up there, a few friends have been begging me to take them so that was our day. I am glad were were heading out so you could enjoy a little solitude up on the mountain. My partner has info on the plane wreck but is out of town at the moment. I will bug her when she gets back.

I was guessing that it was Guy that you saw up there, not rustygoat